Once Upon A Dream

It was a fun/peaceful Thanksgiving Day at Meme and Papa's house.

Ok - so Gillian got the snip...and Gabby got the chop....She always wants the chop.

And this wasn't even the largest icicle! We went sled riding/snow tubing in Kersey over Thanksgiving. It was a huge hit...and afterward - hot cocoa and home made chicken soup!

Gabby and Gillian got a package in the mail from Bella before Thanksgiving, and it was full of goodies that the girls love. They started eating the crayola candy canes right away. They are displaying two magnets that Bella painted for them. Yesterday, the girls got a package in the mail from Grandpa Mike, Grandma Cathy, Aunt Lauren, and Uncle Chris. The package contained snowman soup! It was perfect! Thanks so much to all of you. We love you!

I feel like everyone reading must think that all we do is eat cake and cookies...because we are constantly posting picture of some type of sweet. It really isn't that bad. We did some baking over Thanksgiving. Of course we did it all for the girls, and none of the adults ate too many cookies (shifty eyes).

Here are a couple of the projects that we did. The first cookies are for eating. Very easy to make...and fun for kids.

The next project that we did was for decoration. These cookies do not taste good...although you could eat them. Gillian asks me to eat them everyday....We used to make these with kindergarteners when I worked many moons ago. Some of you may have made these before...they are so easy...and they smell delicious. After they dry, they become hard. We put them on a tree in our entry way to give out to people who visit over the holiday. Pictures are posted first....then the recipe will follow for any of you who are interested.

Spice Ornaments

3/4 cup cinnamon
2 T ground cloves
1 T nutmeg
1 T all spice
1 cup applesauce

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Mix the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and all spice together. Slowly add the applesauce until you get a consistancy like that of sugar cookie dough. You may not need the whole cup. Add more cinnamon if it becomes too moist.

Sprinkle cinnamon on the counter top to keep the dough from sticking. Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and use your favorite cookie cutters to create shapes. Use a drinking straw to create a hole at the top of the ornament/shape.

Place the ornaments on a cookie tray and bake. Turn the ornaments with a spatula every 15 minutes. Oven baking will help the ornaments to dry faster, but it is not necessary. They can dry on their own over several days.

We quadrupled the batch in order to make enough ornaments to cover the small tree.

Breanna and Kirin came over to play the other day.

The girls saw Santa at the mall the other night. Gabby said to us..."He is not the real Santa. He is just a helper. All mall Santa's are just helpers". We said, "ohhhhh ok." This "helper" was really nice. The elves talked to the kids when they were waiting to see Santa...they found out the girls names...etc. They secretly slipped the info to Santa before the girls came over, and it was funny to see the looks on their faces when Santa already new everything about them. I don't think this will last very much longer with Gabby. She is starting to catch on.

Gabby went to a bowling birthday party, today. Sean is in her kindergarten class, and he was on her soccer team.

Back before Thanksgiving, Lena, Tony, and Bella sent the girls a "letters to santa" activity packet. We broke that open today and started writing our letters. It was really fun because Gabby was so serious...(I savoured every moment because this could be the last year). She wrote this elaborate long letter...all on her own, and she told Santa to call her at the end of the letter. I called Milena....and we concocted a plan. Santa should be calling very soon....stay tuned for the video that we hope we get....

PS - Gillian asked for candy canes, gum, and dollies. Gabby colored the picture of the Dentist Elf. Also - we had to smudge out the phone number for the blog...for obvious reasons.

We got some pajamas and bedtime stories in the mail from our friends out in Western PA...Thanks so much for the pj's, Meghan, Frank, Sophia, and Michael! We can't wiat to wear these!

Gabby worked on this project for school, and Gillian decided to give it a try, too. They didn't have paper big enough for mommy!

Gillian's school went on a field trip yesterday to The Egg in Albany. There was a black light puppet show featuring The Very Hungary Caterpillar, Little Cloud, and The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle. The show was awesome. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance, but the pupeteers came out afterward and showed the audience how everything worked. It was a very kid friendly performance...at the beginning the theatre group made an announcement that it was ok if the kids wanted to tell the story along with the show because they were a non-shushing company.

We had a very bad ice storm up here in the Northeast if you haven't heard. We lost our power and heat around midnight last Thursday into Friday. It didn't return until Saturday afternoon. The ice was so beautiful and brutal. There are massive amounts of trees and limbs down all over our area. Our neighborhood was hit bad. We lost at least half of our Magnolia tree, and some of the neighbors trees fell on our shed. We are so thankful that no one was hurt. We could hear the trees breaking in the middle of the night. It sounded like gun shots. We also had special visitors over the weekend. Uncle Tim came and brought his girlfriend, Heather. We love her...she fits right into the family. Here are a few shots from our yard, around the neighborhood, and out at lunch on Saturday with Tim and Heather.

Like we mentioned previously....Uncle Tim came to visit. Aunt Mandy and Uncle Steve came up on Sunday to spend the day, also. The girls were very excited because Amanda and Steve brought the girls presents early. There was a fingerprint art book, dvds, an awesome microscope with slide sets...and other fun toys. We spent the day playing games...and having dinner.

Once a month, Dave and I have the opportunity to volunteer in Gabby's classroom during center time. It is so much fun, and we are so thankful for Mrs. Bacchia. She is a great teacher. Dave went to school yesterday to help at the art center. The students were making snowflake ornaments with beads. Then they had to jet to gym class. I don't know who had more fun...Gabby or Dave.

Thanks Granddaddy and Nana Karen! We love the Amearican Girl accessories! xoxo

Here are two pictures of our shovelers on the day of our first snow...(if you don't count that ice we got last week). Gabby's afternoon kindergarten was cancelled because we were going to get much more snow...so she came along with Gillian and me to Tumbling Tykes.

Last weekend we celebrated Christmas with Dave's family in NYC. We had breakfast with Santa at Rockefeller Center. It was a great experience. We have always wanted to skate under the big tree, but we have never wanted to stand in the extra long ice skating line. Since the breakfast is at the restaurant right beside the rink, we were able to go right out to the ice when we were done eating. Santa and some of his elves were there to eat, give gifts, and skate with us. Everyone did really well on their skates, and there were no broken bones. After skating we walked down to Times Square to ride the ferris wheel in Toys R Us.

Here are some of the pictures of all the fun we had at Milena, Tony, and Isabella's house. Thanks for a wonderful time. The girls really enjoyed all the activities....especially the advent calendar, making cookie houses, and riding the train at the mall!

We got a lot of snow while we were down in the city.....
Yes...the snow piles are as tall as the girls....it is awesome!

We got a ton of fruit in the mail from Grandpa Mike, Grandma Cathy, Aunt Lauren, and Uncle Chris. Then another package came in the mail with candy, toys, and crafts. The girls loved everything. They watched the movie right away, and Gabby painted her frame. She has been begging for ceramic things to paint just like that....it was perfect! xoxo

Our neighbors, Barry and Carol, were kind enough to have us over for a Hanukkah party so that the girls could learn all about it. We had so much fun! Carol and Barry gave each of the girls a little dreidel and a craft kit to make a Hanukkah necklace. Then we had a wonderful dinner that included Carol's famous rainbow Jello. We had Barry's latkes which were delicious, and we ate them with applesauce. After having some cookies for desert, and learned how to play the dreidel game. We played using M&Ms. Gabby was very good at understanding the symbols. It took Dave and I a lot longer. Gillian didn't want to give up any of her M&M's so she wasn't a very big fan of shin. Here are a few pictures of us giving Barry and Carol a gift, playing the dreidel game, and lighting the Menorah.

We had a small winter celebration (the theme was snow/snowballs/reindeer) at Gillian's school today, and then we went to a Christmas party in Gabby's classroom. Mrs. Bacchia invited Gillian to join into all the festivities....The poor little thing lost all her energy by 4 pm and fell asleep in her car seat.